Jennifer Weiner and What I Wore: Simplicity 2633 and New Look 6843

For the past there years I have attended the Jennifer Weiner book readings at the Princeton Public Library. She is a hoot, never disappoints.

This year the deal was, if you wore a vest, you got your choice of a "I read Jennifer Weiner" tote or beach towel. (Why, you ask? Well, she explains why here and here.)

Due to traffic she arrived half an hour late, so I had to book it out of there midway through her visit to get back to a work meeting.  I tweeted that I was sad to miss the bag.  Well, through replies from Jennifer and from the Princeton Public Library, Jennifer's assistant mailed me the bag!  I am thrilled SO thrilled!!!

So here's a recreation of what I wore that day.

I sewed the vest (Simplicity 2633--one of the Project Runway patterns)  waaaay back in 2009, wore it once, never wore it again....Little did I know then, it was fated to be the Jennifer Weiner vest!!  So from now on it is known as the Vest.  It is another fun case study to look at something I sewed 3 years ago and think how I sew it differently today.  (i.e. closing it with a snap and sewing the button on the front...for starters).

I sewed the skirt, New Look 6843, 3 weeks ago.  The Vest and skirt go very well together.

Even my dressform loves the bag. I tweeted this to Jennifer and she retweeted and said my dressform has taste.   Awwww!  My brush with a celebrity!


The bag is really high quality too!    The interior edges are finished with a Hong Kong finish (have to look that up to verify that's the right term) and the bag is super sturdy.  I have used it a few times already.

I have finally read two Jennifer Weiner books I bought ages ago but never cracked open--her novel Little Earthquakes, and her collection of short stories The Guy Not Taken (one of the stories, Swim, is the basis for her new novel The Next Best Thing).  And I finally started the Next Vest, er, Best Thing this morning.  Yay!

In other news, I bought MORE black eyed susans this morning to plant.  My car was bursting with happiness, front and back!!

I decided that today would be a great day to get my hair trimmed and straightened. And then it started raining while I was at the salon. Let's see how long this lasts for!  I'm in New Look 6071, my favorite dress I've ever sewn.

My hair is getting long! I plan to keep growing it out for at least another year or two.
Side view


Tonight my straight hair and I will spend some quality time with my serger video.   I'm going to try rethreading it from scratch (not knotting it and pulling the knots through) with MaxiLock thread.  There's another online chat tmw night for the serger class so I need to keep on making progress.

And what are you up to this evening?
Be well!

Jennifer Weiner book reading!

Jennifer Weiner drew a big crowd at the PPL
Originally uploaded by pplflickr

I'm in the last row of the audience--in all black on the right--my shirt and hair match!

I almost didn't go, and I forgot to bring my camera, but I saw Jennifer Weiner at a lunchtime benefit for the Princeton Public Library today. It would have been easy to score a picture with her too (so Jay McCarroll will have to suffice for now)! I am SO GLAD that I went. I haven't read her books for a while but she has written 8 books in 8 years and just released a new book yesterday. So I've read 3 of her 8, but the last one I read was in 2006.

She told some fun stories (being on Rachael Ray's show; meeting Rosie O'Donnell; a brief analysis of the Bachelorette among them) , then read a passage from her new book, then opened the floor to questions. She's vivacious, full of energy, witty and kind, confident but not cocky--the type of person you love to know. She graduated from Princeton U so it was very cool that she has a connection to the place. I liked her discussion of her creative process. She writes from 11-4 or 12-5 every day. It takes her 6-8 months to write a novel, then a month or two of working with someone else (can't remember the name for that person), then another month with her editor.

She was twittering and facebooking before, during, and after the presentation. She had a book signing afterward but I plan on borrowing the book from the library instead, and I needed to go back to work.

The audience was entirely female. She said at the book reading the night before, there were 3 men in the audience. She promised the men they wouldn't start menstruating until after the reading.

If you like her books, you will definitely enjoy her reading--check out her book tour schedule!

And all the pix that the official PPL photographer took are here.

It was such a fun thing to go to and really put a spring in my step afterward! I think I captured some of her energy!